Pallet structure



July 29, 1952 i R. A. FLETCHER 2,605,070

LLLLLLLLLLLLLL RE July 29, 1952 R. A. FLETCHER 2,605,070

PALLET STRUCTURE Filed June 15, 1946 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 July 29, 1952 R.A. FLETCHER 2,605,070

PALLET STRUCTURE Filed June 15, 1946 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 July 29, 1952 R.A. FLETCHER PALLET STRUCTURE 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed June 13, 1946 July29, 1952 L R 2,605,070

PALLET STRUCTURE Filed June 13, 1946 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 July 29, 1952 R.A. FLETCHER 2,605,070

PALLET STRUCTURE Filed June 15, 1946 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 Patented July 29,1952 UNITED STATES OFFICE- I PALDET STRUCTURE Ralph A. :Fletcher,Westford, Mass. Application June is, 1946, Serial No. $676,446

: 1 In handling crates, shipping cases and contamer-s of various types,and particularly in stacking or storing these members upon one anotherin a 'compactand readily accessible man- "ner, it is frequentlythe-custom to "*palleti-ze""the goods, i. e. mount them upon pallets.Essentially a pallet consists of a spacing member, customarily made ofwood, which presents open sidesdesigned for use with a chisel tr-uckiThis type "of vehicle is equipped with "a litting b'ar or-tongue-arranged atits front end. 'The tongue member is inserted in thev palletopenings and employed 'topi'ck up' and stack loaded pallets. ;Sincedevices'of this nature-mayinsome cases .be used to support exceedinglyheavy loads, they "are required to have :a great deal of strength andrigidity, Weight of the'pallet, on'the other hand, should bemaintainedat a'minimum because'ofjthe'need for .e'ase'of handling and otheradvantages. V

-An object of the invention, therefore, is to improvepallets and todevise a fabricated fpallet b'oid-y' whose" constituent elements are soorganized 'a'nd'gsecured to one another :as to develop outstandingjlightweight" charactenwithout unduly .sacrificing ,overall strength andrigidity. Another object or theinventio'n is to .provideIa-"fabricatedsup porting structure in which columnlike supporting eflects areachieved, and atsome points a beam-type construction is simulated inorderto combine both strength and rigidity in three dimensions. Afurtherobject is to design .a $che&.p, "simple and rapid method ofbuilding :fabricated pallets. Other objects will appear from thefollowing description ,of the invention.-

In this connection Ihave'io'und that excellent results may be obtainedby fabricating pallets fro'm varioustypes of sheet "materials. 'One'desirable sheet material may, for example eem- "pr ise a sheet of wiremesh in which a plurality of wires :are lai'd crosswise upon one anotherin parallel 'spaced apart-relation. II find that wire mesh is welladapted tobeing-pressed into a number of unique forms-with whichadditional supporting elements may *be' secured permanently, thusforming an integrated whole of exceptional strength and lightness: I, 5

"In-the accompanying drawings: v 'Fig. '1 is a 'side elevational view of1a sheetof 'wirem'esh; I

v Fig. 2 "is a side .e'levationali view "illustrating a.

'stepinformingthe'wire'inesh;

" Figs. 3, '4

and 5 illustrate further forming steps;

Claims. (Cl. 248120) assembly.

Fig. 6 is a detail cross-sectional view .takenon the-line 6-6 oftFi-g.3; I

Fig. 7-is a perspective view'of a modified .type of pallet;

Fig.-8 is a detail view furtherillustratingaportion of a pallet similarto that indicated iILF-ig. "17;-

Fi-gs. 9130 19 inclusiveillustrateanother modification of palletstructure-with its method of The palletstruetures-shown m-theabove-notedfigures may -be considered as of two general-types; one type is formedwith triangular supporting members such illustrated in .:-Fi-gs. 1-;'8inclusive; the other type is formed with u-shap d supportingmemberswsuch as are illustrated by Figs. 9-19 inclusive.

All of the figures in "thetdrawirigs illustrate the fabrication .ofpallet structures from 1 a sheet material "of wire imesh and thefollowing description deals with forming .ioperations :more or lessspecific to the use of wire mesh. It should rbe understood, however,that the .invention'i's 'not limited to'zth'e ,use of wire mesh.Vari'ousother materialsfmay be employed in constructing the palletfeatures disclosed. I Thus 11 may employ reticulated sheet materialsmade of :elements other than Wire'v/ith these :ele'mentsbe'ing inter-"woven or-otherwise attached to o'ne another. 'si-mila'rly I may chooseto utilize strip's or sheets which are-cut or punche'd't'o' providereticulated 'e'fiects. I inay-even in some cases find itdesirable='to'use' a continuous sheet and it is further understood thatany of these forms may becombined with separate supporting elements whenso desired. In this connection also I may resort to the use of differentmetals such as aluminum, 'm'agnes'ium, light alloys and others.Likewise, I may go outside the field of metal to "fabricate a pallet ofsheet materials such as resins'a-nd 'plasti'cs, plywood 'and otherfibrous bodies.

Considering the method relating tothe 'type of pallet shown in Figs. 1-8inclusive, Fig. Tindicates in elevation a sheet of "wire mesh made up ofa plurality of .wires laid "cross-Wise upon one another in parallelspaced relation. Numeral denotes'loottom wires as viewed. in Fig; 1'amdnumeral l2 denotes top wires. :I'may desireto'assemble the individualwires'in the 'mannernoted, "or .I may prefer to employ sheets ofthe'v'vire mesh which are manufactured in various -sizes gage with theconstituent wire .eiements' occurring rainy ,close't'o one another, forexample .with I *a ."spacingrof two inches. Welding 'is' resorted ,in'gtop surface of the pallet.

its generally rigid character.

"to as a preferred method of securing contactsize, is'molded or pressedalong a line passing.

through the center of the sheet and also along lines passing through twoopposite edges of the sheet to provide separat rows of Us as may be seenin Fig. 2. This operation may bee-onvenientlycarried out by means offorming dies, with the male die acting against the wires I2 so that thelower wires [9 constitute a series of U-shaped legs. the center of thewire mesh are pressed together into a position such as that noted inFig. 3 to form triangles l4.

The upper bent portions [6 and 18,: as. they are forced inwardly, areslightly offset so that they pass by one another to define an opening asviewed in. Fig. 3. Similar openings are formed by the other Us in therow. Through these openings may then be passed a tie rod member 22 as isillustrated in Fig. 4. The tie rod may, if desired, be welded to thebends, thus firmly locking the folded wire into a fixed triangularposition as described.

Those portions of the wires l occurring between points of bending,together'with the intervening wires I2, combine to form asupporthereinafter referred to as the"pallet deck.

Attention is directed to the U portions formed along the edges of thewire mesh as illustrated at the right-hand side of Fig. 2. These Uportions are formed into a shape generally corresponding to a righttriangle as may be more clearly seen at the right-hand side of Fig. 3.In this position, the extremities of the wires project slightly abovethe deck. Preferably the projecting ends are bent or offset into theposition shown in Fig. 5, and thereafter secured by welding to theoutside wire [2. This provides a pallet closed on two opposite edgeswith the remaining two edges including tongue openings I l.

1 It is pointed out that the legs of the'triangle '14, by their opposedposition, develop a substantial bracingeffect, tending to resist lateral,displacement of the pallet by forces acting against one side or theother, as viewed in Fig. 3. The tie-rod 22 fixed at the tops of thetriangles combines with the triangles to present a beam-type supportingeiTect extending all the way through the center of the pallet, thusfurther increasing Of even greater importance is the supporting strengthwhich is developed by the combination of the tie rod, the

amount of structural material being utilized,

andwith suitable tongue openings being' preserved on two sides of thepalletoccurring between the rows of triangles. 7

For some purposes I may desire to employ the pallet'in the form nowdescribed. For other uses, I may desire to furnish and use additionalbase elements which either supplement the bot: tom surfaces of thetriangles or take the place of them entirely. Fig. 3 further illustratesone type of base element consisting of corrugated bearing plates '26.

Thereafter those U portions at This surface is Preferably, a group ofthese plates,

for example three, are arranged in spaced-apart relation so that theyextend along two opposite edges and a central portion of the pallet, ina parallel manner. One of these corrugated bearing plates is illustratedat the front of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 illustrates a preferred method of attaching bearing plates to thewire superstructure. As will be noted, the triangles l4 have theirbottom surfaces lying upon the flat sides 26a of the bearing plates. Thecross wires extending transversely across the bottoms of the triangles Mare slightly upset to assume a bent or curved form as noted in Fig. 6.The upset wire may conveniently be referred to by the numeral 28 and thecurved or bent portion is designated by the numeral 3E. 32 indicates aspot of welding which unites the corrugated portion of the bearing plateto the bent portion of strip 26.

I may also desire to utilize the base elements made of wire in place ofthe corrugated strips for some types of materials handling. In Figs. 7and 8 one form of wire bearing structure isillustrated in which thetriangles M have arranged adjacent to their bottom sides a ladderlikestructure made up of three longitudinal wires 36, 38 and 49 arrangedinspaced-apart parallel relation and secured to one another by means ofcross pieces 42.

The two outside wires 36 and 49 of the ladderlike structure arepreferably located along points midway of the triangles in contactwiththe wire illustrated by numeral 44 in Fig. '7. The intermediate wire 38of the ladder-like member is arranged more closely to the adjacenttriangle and is upset in such a way that it passes under the wire aswell as below the wires numbered 45 and 48 inFig. '7. It is pointed outthat the wires 36 and 40 and the upset portion of wire '38 have bottomedges lying in the same'plane (Fig. 8) as that occupied by similarportions of the bottom of the triangle l4, to provide an increasedbearing'surface.

Another general'type of pallet characterized let a wire mesh similar tothat already described is reversed so that the wires Hlioccur at the top"of the wire. mesh and the wires I 2 occur atth'e bottom' as may benoted from an inspection of Fig. 9.

The wire fabric is subjected to apressing operation as before, with theforming dies in this case bearing against the wires l0 and providing acentrally disposed row of Us, 50, and two other parallelly arranged rowsof Us, 52, extending along opposite edgesof the fabric or mesh. Thecentrally disposed Us arethen knitted together along their tops by meansof a ladder-like member made up of a longitudinal rod 54 across which issecured a plurality of cross pieces, 56. The ladder-like membermay'conveniently be assembled as a separateunit and then laid upon theupper edges of the rods numbered 58 and 60 in Fig. 12. Welded in placein this manner, the tops of respective Us are locked together. The legsof the Us are prevented from being forced apart by the cross pieces 56laidupon the wires 58 and 60. The upright legs of the lls; are presentedin a substantially vertical position so that they exert a maximumcolumn-supporting effect to a heavy load. It will also benotedthat thetop edges of the cross pieces 56 are in the same plane as the top edgesof wires 10, as viewed in Fig. 12, with the result that the ladder-likemembers combine with the top portions ofthe wires [0 to form acontinuousdeck.

. "Aswas the casewith the triangularly shaped supporting'elements;thelegsof'each U are braced againstlaterally directed rams, tendingtoccllapsethem; the Us occur in rows and are locked together by theladder-like. member. so that bracing is achieved in two dimensions; andthe up- -r'ight-= character of the Us cooperates with these features toresist vertically applied forces. The net result is againthree-dimensional rigidity and strength with a minimum of weight.

.The wire members 62 and 6 4 in Fig. 12 are well suitedtofunctioning asbracing members and may be so". employed if desired. I may howeverprefer tofluse the corrugated-bracing plate type ilfi-i-l iinclusive'Numeral' H! denotes the corrugated bearing strips preferably extendingapproximately midis done by upsetting the wires 62 and 64 to form bendsas 12, which are thereafter cut to allow these wires to bridge acrossfrom the edges of the bearing plates to these corrugated tops withoutstretching or distorting the wires relative to the rest of the wire meshbody. Figs. 14 and 15 illustrate the wires in an upset and cut positionwith the bearing plate located directly under the cut ends. Figs. 16 and17 further illustrate this operation and show two points of welding 14and I6 by which the wire ends are secured to the corrugation.

As will be observed from an inspection of Fig. 19, the ladder-likemembers, for knitting together the tops of individual Us, are used atthe edges as well as the center of the pallet, thus providing a means ofeasily and quickly finishing two closed edges.

The remaining two edges of the pallet present openings 18, defined bythe rows of Us, into which the tongue of a truck may be inserted inlifting the pallet.

It is intended that the pallet structures of the invention may bemodified in other ways, for example such as that illustrated in Fig. 18.This 7 figure shows a type of closed pallet edge in which the wire meshis bent over upon itself in sufficient length to form a box-like member80 as shown. Another alternative arrangement comprises a fabricatedpallet having supporting portions formed by methods such as thoseillustrated in Figs. 1-19 but with the difference that portions of thewire mesh or other deck material used are cut out at separatedintervals. When the intervening portions are pressed or bent, there arethus obtained separated column-like members in place of continuouslyextending rib portions. These and various other changes are intended.

' 'tbraceand'this has been illustrated in-"l igfs.

us-ing a wi-re- -which is manufactured structural sizes over a widerange of dimensions, itbecomes pessible to change pallet sizes veryeasie -aha to provide iaflex-iblerange of pallet From the abovedescription it will be evident sizes for particular sizes of 'packag'es'to beupal l'etized. Thepallet' structure thus produced is'outstanding-ly li'ght and yet-develops unexpectedly fine strengthfeatures as well-"as ample stiffness.

1 'fItis' intended that the various novel deck-and supporting j featuresmay be embodied in other materials asnoted above andflwithin'the limitsdefinedby the appended claims I n improved-palletstructure comprisingawire-mesh deck'formed :of atleast twosets 0f spaced-apart wire memberslaid crosswise upon one' 'anether, constituentwire members of one of thesets being bent along a plurality of transverse lines of bending toprovide rows of depending supports for the deck, some of the wiremembers of the other of said sets extending along the bottoms of saiddepending supports, and means con-' sisting of bridging elements securedto the deck so as to connect, one to another, those portions of the deckincluded between the rows of depending supports.

2. An improved pallet structure comprising a wire mesh deck formed of atleast two sets of spaced-apart wire members laid crosswise upon oneanother, constituent wire members of one of the sets being bent along aplurality of transverse lines of bending to provide rows of dependingsupports for the deck some of the wire members of the other of said setsextending longitudinally of the rows and lying out of the plane of thesaid deck, those portions of the deck included between the rows ofdepending supports being crowded together, and means for holding infixed relation to one another the said crowded together portions.

3. An improved pallet structure comprising a wire mesh deck formed oftwo sets of spacedapart wire members laid crosswise upon one another,constituent wire members of one of the sets being bent along a pluralityof transverse lines of bending to provide separated rows of dependingsupports for the deck some of the wire members of the other of said setsextending longitudinally of the rows, those portions of the deckincluded between the rows of depending supports being crowded together,and means consisting of wire elements for connecting one to anotheropposite portions of the deck included between respective rows ofdepending supports.

4. A structure as defined in claim 3 in which the connectingwireelements are arranged to lie in the plane of the deck.

5. A device as defined in claim 2 in which the depending supports are ofa substantially triangular form and the holding means include wireelements lying in the plane of the deck.

6. A device as described in claim 2 in which the depending supports areof a substantially triangular form and the holding means include aplurality of wire elements which extend through apices formed byadjacent overlapping bent portions of the deck elements. I

'7. A device as described in claim 2 in which the depending supportspresent inclined legs and lower intervening base portions, the holdingmeans consisting of a plurality of wires arranged in the plane of thedeck and passed through apices of triangles defined by the legs, and aplurality of base plates solidly secured at the under 8: A, device adescribed in claini l in which eachof the depending supports is ofasubstantially U shaped form. V

9. A; device as described in claim "1 in which each of the dependingsupports presentszspacedapart vertical legs and the holding meansinclude a series of short lengths of wire lying in the plane of the deckand connecting together opposite bent portions of respective wiremembers.

10. A device as described in claim 1 in which the depending supportspresent spaced-apart vertical legs and lowerintervening base portions,

wire members, and a plurality of base plates solidly secured at theunder sidesof thebase portions of thedepe'n'ding supports. IRALPI-IA.FLETCHER,

IREFERENCVESVCITED The following references are of record the file ofthis patent: 1

5 UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name 7 Date 815,061 Bellofi et a1 Mar.13, 1906 1,587,573 Young June 8, 1926 1,700,843 Hayward Feb; 5, 19292,190,065 7 Griffin Feb. 13, 1940 2,388,730 Fallert Nov. 1-3, 19452,412,184 Ulinski Dec. 3; 1946

